Sununu Shreds Obama Admin, FBI Conduct in 2016 Election

The former White House chief of staff slammed the FBI for refusing to notify the Trump and Clinton campaigns of Russian interference.

By NTK Staff | 05.31.2018 @9:36am

In an appearance on CNN on Thursday, former New Hampshire Governor and White House Chief of Staff John Sununu criticized the response of the Obama administration and FBI to Russian interference in the 2016 election, saying President Obama and law enforcement were “playing games” with the election.

“I would have wanted the FBI and President Obama, who also knew that this might be happening, to notify the Clinton campaign and the Trump campaign and to provide assistance to them,” he said. “Obama chose not to do this because he thought doing it would give a political advantage to the Trump campaign.”

CNN’s Alisyn Camerota argued that it was congressional Republicans’ fault that the government never notified anyone of Russian interference. “Obama did go to Congress,” she said. “[Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell said no and wasn’t interested in that.”

Sununu wanted no part of that explanation.

“It wasn’t the legislative branch’s responsibility! The FBI was the one that had this information. That’s executive branch, and all Obama was doing by going to McConnell was looking for political cover,” the former chief of staff said.

“[Obama] should have done what any leader should do and notify both campaigns,” he added.

As for the FBI, Sununu claimed that if the organization had acted “ethically,” they would have notified campaigns of Russian interference before inserting informants into the Trump campaign.

“Right from the top of the Obama administration through the leadership of the Justice Department into the FBI, they were playing games with the election,” he said.

The former chief of staff also pointed out that Russia spent about $5 million in digital advertising, a “trivial” amount compared to the $2 billion on the election in total.